Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
A video spanning almost 2 minutes where an angry mob is seen running rampage at the Naopara Mahishasur railway station, vandalising the premises with sticks is going viral on social media. Users who shared the claim said that the railway station was being ‘targeted by Muslims’ as the sound of trains disturbed the Namaz.
The video has been shared on Twitter by user @KreatelyMedia who has 1,38,300 followers on the platform. The video has garnered 4,614 views and 332 likes and 262 shares along with the caption ‘Mahishasur railway station in Murshidabad, #WestBengal gets destroyed. Alleged reason: Sound of trains disturbs general population while praying.’
Newschecker found similar claims on Twitter and Facebook with similar captions.
Also read: Video Claiming Namaz Offered In Public Despite UP’s Decision On Loudspeakers Is Old And Unrelated
Fact Check/ Verification
Newschecker conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video to ascertain its authenticity and found several Facebook posts from December, 2019 which contained similar images to the one seen in the viral video.
Upon further investigation, Newschecker found a tweet from user @JaiBharatgss uploaded on 17th December, 2019 along with the caption ‘Station: Naopara Mahishasur. District: Murshidabad. State: You guessed it. Action: Expression of freedom. By: You got it’ which contained similar images from the viral video.
According to the report “Police sources confirmed, the intensity of the movement was highest in Jangipur subdivision. Protesters gathered at Nimatita station, Poradanga station, Naopara Mahishasur station and started vandalising it in the morning. They also tried to remove the railway line.”
Newschecker also found a news report by Business Today uploaded on 15th December, 2019 titled ‘ Citizenship Amendment Act: Protests across West Bengal; 5 trains set on fire, properties vandalised.’
According to the report “Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from several districts of West Bengal on Sunday as people protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Protestors vandalised properties at three railway stations and set five trains on fire in the state.”
Newschecker contacted the District Manager of Malda Railway Department who confirmed that the incident had no links with the ‘siren disturbing Namaz’. The incident took place during the 2019 CAA NRC-centric protests.
Conclusion
According to the investigation conducted by Newschecker, an old video from the anti-CAA protests from December, 2019 is being shared as recent violence in a railway station in West Bengal over the train ‘siren disturbing Namaz’.
Result: False Context/False
Our Sources
Facebook post by Frankly Speak
Facebook post by Chandan Mallick
Tweet by GS Sridhar
News report by Bartaman Patrika
News report by Business Today
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
